computer is borked

smof

My PC won't boot up, it hangs on the Win XP logo screen with the blue bar underneath that keeps moving, but nothing ever happens. Tried to do a system restore and that doesn't work.

Found this on a google search

This could be the work of a naughty driver failing to load. See if you can catch it in the act.

Start up in safe mode-->goto "Start"-->"Run" and type "MSCONFIG" without the quotes-->select the "BOOT.INI" tab-->place a check in the box "/SOS"-->Apply-->Close-->restart.

Now as your computer boots back up you should see a list of drivers loading, if the setup hangs on a particular driver, reboot into safe mode again and un-install the driver. The try boot into normal mode again to see if it's worked.

And did this. It didn't report anything wrong and got into the desktop this time, but it's frozen. I can move the mouse but not click on anything or use the keyboard. So the only way to shut down is with the power button, whereupon the same thing as before happens.


The only changes I've made recently were installing Deus Ex, which was working fine until yesterday and then started making really distorted sounds when I loaded it up. I fixed that by disabling hardware acceleration for sound. It ran fine for about 45 minutes after that and then totally froze up and I had to shut down with the power button because I couldn't alt-tab out or anything. And now the PC won't boot, so I assume that's when the problem started, but don't know if something went wrong which made the game/computer crash or if the game freezing and me shutting down like that broke something.

Any suggestions? I can boot in safe mode but I don't know what to do once I'm there.

PaperPritt

Looks to me that you need to install windows again! fun times.....

Did you try booting with another HD and OS?

Cirira

The computer boots into safe mode just fine? This would indicate a driver issue to me. Did Deus Ex install a new version of DirectX or ask you to update drivers? I would try to locate up to date drivers for graphics and sound and see if stuff works then.

If Safe Mode isn't working I would think it may be a different issue, but you said you can get to Safe Mode.

WhatToThink

It sounds like it might be a video driver. Since you can boot into safe mode I would try to completely uninstall Deus Ex and then go from there.

Greenish

Before you reformat you could try a repair install. Boot to the XP CD and after awhile you will get a Welcome to Setup screen. Press Enter to enter windows setup (Not Repair through the Recovery Console). Accept the agreement on the next screen. After that you should get a list with your windows installaion on your hard drive. Hit R to start the repair. This will only reinstall core files and leave your programs and other files alone.